Pharoah's Army Got Drowned eBook

Except for the responsibility of her cousin’s
entertainment, Patty enjoyed herself exceedingly;
but then she was always a happy little girl, and never
allowed herself to be discomfited by trifles.

Everybody was surprised when Aunt Alice announced
that it was time for luncheon, and though all were
disappointed at the failure of the sail, everybody
seemed to take it philosophically and even merrily.

“What is the matter?” said Ethelyn.
“Why don’t we go?”

“The matter is,” said Mr. Fairfield, “we
are becalmed. There is no breeze and consequently
nothing to make our bonny ship move, so she stands
still.”

“And are we going to stay right here all day?”
asked Ethelyn.

“It looks very much like it, unless an ocean
steamer comes along and gives us a tow.”

Aunt Alice and the girls of the party soon had the
luncheon ready, and the merry feast was made.
As Frank remarked, it was a very different thing to
sit there in the broiling sun and eat sandwiches and
devilled eggs, or to consume the same viands with
the yacht madly flying along in rolling waves and
dashing spray.

The afternoon palled a little. Youthful enthusiasm
and determined good temper could make light of several
hours of discomfort, but toward three o’clock
the sun’s rays grew unbearably hot, the glare
from the water was very trying, and the mosquitoes
were something awful.

Guy Morris, who probably spent more of his time in
a boat than any of the others, declared that he had
never seen such a day.

Mr. Fairfield felt sorry for Ethelyn, who had never
had such an experience before, and so he exerted himself
to entertain her, but she resisted all his attempts,
and even though Patty came to her father’s assistance,
they found it impossible to make their guest happy.

Reginald was no better. He growled and fretted
about the heat and other discomforts and he was so
pompous and overbearing in his manner that it is not
surprising that the boys of Vernondale cordially disliked
him.

“As long as we can’t go sailing,”
said Ethelyn, “I should think we would go home.”

“We can’t get home,” said Patty
patiently. She had already explained this several
times to her cousin. “There is no breeze
to take us anywhere.”

“Well, what will happen to us, then? Shall
we stay here forever?”

“There ought to be a breeze in two or three
days,” said Kenneth Harper, who could not resist
the temptation to chaff this ill-tempered young person.
“Say by Tuesday or Wednesday, I should think
a capful of wind might puff up in some direction.”

“Put something around you, my boy,” said
his mother, “I don’t want you to take
cold.”

“Let me get you a wrap,” said Frank, smiling
back at his mother, who was fanning herself with a
folded newspaper.

“The wind is coming,” said Guy Morris,
and his serious face was a sharp contrast to the merry
ones about him, “and it’s no joke this
time. Within ten minutes there’ll be a
stiff breeze, and within twenty a howling gale, or
I’m no sailor.”